Business Data Catalog is a new business integration feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It is a shared service and it enables Office SharePoint Server 2007 to surface business data from back-end server applications without any coding. Business Data Catalog bridges the gap between the portal site and your business applications and enables you to bring in key data from various business applications to Office SharePoint Server 2007 lists, Web Parts, search, user profiles, and custom applications.
Business Data Catalog provides built-in support for displaying data from databases and Web services. That is, you can use Business Data Catalog to display data from your SAP, Siebel, or other line-of-business (LOB) application via Web services or databases.
Business Data Catalog is the key infrastructural component around which the other Business Data features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 are built. For information about the Business Data features, see the following topics:
One of the major design goals for Business Data Catalog is to enable you to surface business data from various LOB applications such as SAP, Siebel, and databases in Office SharePoint Server 2007 with minimal coding effort. To achieve this goal, Business Data Catalog provides homogeneous access to the underlying data sources with a metadata model that provides a consistent and simplified client object model.
Typically, metadata authors with a skill set equivalent to that of a database developer describe the API of business applications by using the metadata model. Administrators register business applications in the Business Data Catalog after which the data in the business application is immediately available to you on your portal site through the other Office SharePoint Server 2007 Business Data features and object model.
See Also
Since both BDCMetaMan and the Microsoft offering have significant deficiencies, you will either have to edit the XML or be content with serving data from AdventureWorks.
There is another one: MOSS BDC Design Studio at www.simego.com I haven't tried it yet, but a colleague said it was "orders of magnitude better." I did try Simego's "Data Synchronisation Studio" and found it pretty good--but it, too, had significant flaws.
Intiqab Rawoof
You can use the BDC without any coding.
Create the LOB, Load the Application Definition, add a Web Part, done.
No Coding.
You have to know what you are doing, but you don't have to be a programmer or developer. No C# to write, etc.
In order to use BDC you have to have a knowledgable technical person that can build the BDC metadata from the external data source, which in turn means the technical person must know the external data schema.
BDC is a great tool, but the business has to understand you just don't click a mouse and it magically works.
<moojjoo />
" . . . without any coding." can be confusing. There is a huge amount of metadata involved. The Sample: AdventureWorks2000 Single Sign-On Metadata located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms547043.aspx is a good example of what it takes. There are a couple of tools out that generate this metadata: